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When we talk about “growth,” we
don’t mean hiring — at startups, there’s no such thing as hiring.
There is, however, the nearly automated, sterile overburdening of
your team with the wrong people — and then there is the search
for the right people, for the right jobs, at the right time.

That is, the search for people who will positively add to the
direction of a young company. This process isn’t about talent
consultants or posting “help wanted” ads or pulling resumes from
envelopes full of glitter. It’s a part of every employee’s job to
actively and aggressively pursue — and not just wait for their
next phone screen to get scheduled.

If you want to scale your business in a sustainable way, adding
people to your team becomes unavoidable. In my experience as
co-founder and CEO of Indiegogo, the way you go about doing this
can make or break your company — embolden positive growth or
stagnate thinking and company culture. I see this process as the
paramount consideration for any entrepreneur, and this is advice
I’ve lived by:

Don’t look for employees, look for
entrepreneurs. It’s easy to say, “We have this
deficiency or need, let’s plug this hole with X, Y, or Z
candidate.” When you do that, you begin to emphasize skill set
over drive and hunger. You want someone to not only address
your pre-existing issues, but also to solve problems before
they become problems — to help innovate and drive the company’s
positive growth in leaps, not job description bullet points.
These people will come equipped with the long view. They won’t
just do a job — they’ll work toward a larger goal, for both the
company and their own personal development.

Experience is overrated. When
interviewing potential candidates, I rarely focus on the
resume. What I look for is how people address problems. At
Indiegogo, every day we are working to solve problems that
don’t have solutions. By asking candidates questions like, “How
many trains are running in the NYC subway, at any given time?”
it’s not about the ‘right’ answer — it’s about hearing the
process they would go through to get the answer. Are they
analytical? How are they dissecting the problem? What creative
assumptions are they using to figure out the answer? I find
this to be an extremely strong indicator of how people address
challenges that come up in the workplace.

Preserve company culture, but don’t let it
stagnate. It’s not just that you want everyone to
get along or guarantee team happy hours feel the same way after
your company doubles in size. Culture is an underlying tone
that courses through your company and it will dictate
everything from marketing and branding voice to actual product
decisions. Understanding your company’s culture is important to
do before you can determine a given candidate’s “fit.” Whether
your company loves Burning Man and Rainbow Sandals or if it’s
as pragmatic and humorless as a samurai sword, you need to be
able to identify that as you bring new people onto the team.

Don’t build a clone army, though. Creating a chain of command of
n-sync Yes Men is more dangerous to your company than a Big
Disagreement. Give culture some growing room and allow it to
evolve by introducing fresh voices and diversified perspectives.

Bottom line? Don’t just use a job listing as a crutch and let the
resumes roll in. These people are typically out of work or hate
their jobs. Get proactive about growing your team. Make it a part
of your job as CEO. Stop hiring employees and start finding the
right people.

Slava Rubin is co-founder and CEO of Indiegogo, the
world’s open funding platform. Since its founding in 2008, the
site has distributed millions of dollars to over 50,000 campaigns
in nearly every country of the world. Anyone in the world with
passion can fulfill their dreams and fund creative,
entrepreneurial, or cause campaigns.

The Young Entrepreneur Council
(YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised
of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership
with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual
mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and
grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library
and email lessons.